Stargazing
by prongswhatthefuck
Summary: An unlikely duo finds themselves together on a restless night underneath the universe's blanket of stars.


The night was clear, which was different from most nights because there wasn't a cloud in sight. At 3 a.m., the moon was at its peak. It watched over Hogwarts and all the witches and wizards that slept within. Well, almost all students were asleep, with the exception of James Potter. He was always a night owl, no matter how hard he tried to wake up in the morning.

On this particular night he was studying a piece of parchment in front of him. Unlike other papers, this one showed the moving locations of all bodies within Hogwarts. At 3 a.m. you would expect all figures to be still, well deep into their slumber. But one particular name always stood out. This name was moving slowly to the astronomy tower, a far distance from where her's and all other 6th year Gryffindor's bedchambers were.

The tiny footprints and scrawled penmanship identified the wanderer as Lily Evans. Unless she was unconsciously sleepwalking, it was rather uncharacteristic of her to be out past curfew. He followed her tiny footprints all the way to the main platform of the tower. There wasn't anything of real interest up there, just a few telescopes and old textbooks, so it was a mystery to James why Lily would risk detention to stargaze.

Before he really knew what he was doing, James folded up the parchment, donned his invisibility cloak, and set out towards the tower. He made sure to check the map every-so-often to ensure that Filch or another professor wasn't lurking around the corner. Finally, he made it to the large heavyset doors that opened up into the planetarium.

He heaved them open, trying as best as he could to make as little noise as possible. He slipped through the crack and shut it behind him. Lily faced the railing and didn't notice the sound of the door shutting or the added person in the room.

Still concealed by the cloak, he walked faintly over to where Lily stood. Her green eyes dilated as they met with the brilliance of stars that shown above. James stared at her. He was as engrossed with her as she was with the sky. While she gazed at the clusters of stars in the sky, he studied the constellation of freckles that graced her skin. If they told stories like their galactic counterparts, he wanted to know every one.

James decided that really, he could spend the whole night here, secretly stargazing with Lily Evans. He leaned gently against the railing in content but the old metal strained under his weight and let out an audible _squeeee_. Lily broke her gaze and looked for the perpetrator of the noise. She started to write it off as the wind, then promptly realized that there was no wind. Slowly she reached out a hand towards the noisy spot and another, larger hand revealed itself in thin air. Eventually this hand became an arm, then a torso, and soon a whole James Potter emerged from underneath the mystical sheet.

"W- James?" Lily questioned.

James smiled goofily and ruffled his hair. "Fancy seeing you here."

"How long have you been there?"

"Not long, I promise."

"Why are you here?" interrogated Lily.

"Same reason as you: to stargaze." He figured that the truth of following her up here was much too creepy and would run the risk of her asking how he knew she was up here.

Lily looked unconvinced, but for whatever reason, she stopped questioning him further.

"I come up here sometimes. It's usually cloudy so you can't see much but tonight was too perfect for sleeping." She said this, but it didn't quite seem like she was talking to him. Instead, she was looking up again and speaking to the stars. James guessed she did this more than just this once.

They stood there for a while, in perfect silence. But it was the comfortable silence that you could spend eternity in. Eventually, the burning questions in his mind broke free.

"How often do you come up here?" asked James.

"Maybe 2 or 3 times a month. Only when it's clear and you can pick out constellations."

Maybe Lily senses the question poised on James' lips because she continued without him even asking. "It's a lot of work this year. Last year it was O.W.L.s and this year it's planning for a career. I started coming up here in my third year, as a way of de-stressing. It sounds silly but nighttime is the only part of the day when time seems frozen. In the daytime, there's the hustle and bustle of everyday life. But at night, no one can bother you. You could sit in one place for hours and not a soul could judge you.

Picking out constellations always calmed me. They're dependable. Even if they leave one night they're always there the next."

James didn't quite know what to say to this. Personal information from Evans was rare. He found that she often didn't open up to a lot of people, James being last on that list. If you would ask either of them why she was suddenly confessing, they'd both tell you they had no idea, and perhaps blame it on the stars.

"And you?" Lily asked.

"Same sort of reason I guess. I've only come up here a few times, but when I do it's to think."

"James Potter, a thinker." Lily joked with a smirk.

"I have my moments thank you." He quipped back easily.

Maybe their encounters wouldn't be like this again come sunrise, but they were magical now, and that was enough.

They both returned their attention to the stars until James grabbed the invisibility cloak and laid it out on the floor. The fabric, not concealing someone, glistened under the moonlight. James sat down towards the right side and patted the empty spot to his left.

Lily raised an eyebrow but sat down anyway. James relaxed and laid down, getting a full view of the sky while Lily sat timidly with her neck craned upwards.

"Evans?" James mumbled sleepily.

"Hm?"

"Why'd you tell me that about you?" His glasses shifted on his face as he turned to face her.

"I don't know," Lily answered. "Maybe because for once you weren't trying to just get my attention. You were being sincere."

It was after saying this that she laid down next to him, with a reasonable distance between them, of course. They stayed like this until the sun started to rise at 6. Neither of them had gotten sleep, but somehow the energy of what just happened gave them the strength to survive the coming day.


End file.
